Dr. John Cantwell is a third- generation physician from Wisconsin, who is the father of a physician and a nurse. He is a cardiologist with the Piedmont Heart Institute in Atlanta, GA.
He attended Duke University where he majored in English, participated in varsity basketball, and was a member of Duke’ s first ACC championship team. After graduating from Northwestern Medical School, he interned at the University of Florida and obtained a medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic. Post doctoral fellowships in cardiology were served at the University of California, San Diego, and Emory University.
Dr. Cantwell is a Fellow in the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Sports Medicine, also a Master in the American College of Physicians. He has been a consultant to the President’s Council of Physical Fitness and Sports, and served as a team physician for the Atlanta Braves for 41 seasons (1976-2016). He continues to work with Georgia Tech athletic screening and the Georgia Special Olympics. He was president of the Association of Major League Baseball Team Physicians in 2000. He co-founded the first outpatient Cardiac Rehab Program in Georgia in 1970 and opened the Preventive Cardiology Clinic in 1972, which was one of the first in the country.
Dr. Cantwell enjoys creative writing, reading, mountain trekking, and participation sports with his wife, two children and six grandchildren. He is an active member of the Explorers Club and has enjoyed adventure travels to all seven continents. Most recently, he and his wife participated in medical mission trips to Bhutan and Cambodia. He is a charter member of his high school’ s Sports Hall of Fame for his football, basketball, and baseball exploits, and still holds the school’s career basketball scoring record.
Awards and honors include the Atlantic Coast Conference Honor Roll for Scholarship and Athletics, the Aven Cup (highest award of the Medical Association of Atlanta), and the Morehouse Medical School Award of Excellence (other recipients include Archbishop Tutu, Jane Fonda, Lennie Wilkens, and Edwin Moses), and a 3- time winner of the Montague Boyd award for medical writing and editing. Dr. Cantwell served as editor of the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia from 1999-2003. In 2007 he received the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association’s Professional Achievement Award for exceptional work as a clinician, researcher, and educator. In 2008 Georgia Trend magazine cited him as one of their five “Healthcare Heroes” in the state. In 2011 he was honored with a mastership in the American College of Physicians.